NBC’s Gregory–> Pay For Play is HOW THE WORLD WORKS

Today, brand new Meet the Press host David Gregory, added his voice to those who are trying so hard to protect President-elect Obama, that he made himself look foolish. During today’s show Gregory and his Guest, the bigoted Chicago columnist Mary Mitchell, discussed the Blago Scandal. OK maybe discussed is not the right word, white washed its more appropriate.

Mitchell:Pay to play, everybody knows it. Even, not just in politics. Office politics. Pay to play. You know, if you know the boss, and you need something from the boss, he is going to look around and find the person who is going to do him the most good. He’s not going to hire, put somebody in a place of power that isn’t doing him any good. That’s the world. That’s how the world works.

Later on Gregory and his other guests agreed. (see video above and transcript below:

DAVID GREGORY, HOST: Mary, one of the questions that came up this week from a reporter in the press conference with the president-elect is “What is wrong with politics in Illinois?” But you in your column try to put a little perspective to all of this. This is what you write. We’ll put it up and share it with our viewers. Called “Pay to Play,” which of course is critical to all this:

Regardless of how we rail against Blagojevich, at the heart of all politics is pay to play. Yes. There’s a thin line between expectations and shakedown. But do any of us really believe that the people who raise huge sums of money for a particular political candidate aren’t expecting something for their efforts? Do we really believe that a person who is vested with the power to give away a Senate seat isn’t going to give it to the person who will somehow do him or her the most good?

Here’s the New York Times this morning, a fresh example of that. Front page, “A champion of Wall Street reaps the benefits.” Talking about all of the contributions that Sen. Chuck Schumer gets from Wall Street. Constituents, yes, and an important business for the country. Reality check time?

MARY MITCHELL, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: Reality check. Pay to play, everybody knows it. Even, not just in politics. Office politics. Pay to play. You know, if you know the boss, and you need something from the boss, he is going to look around and find the person who is going to do him the most good. He’s not going to hire, put somebody in a place of power that isn’t doing him any good. That’s the world. That’s how the world works. But, there is a line. You got to know how to play the game. And Blagojevich, Governor Blagojevich was tacky in playing the game. That’s what people are upset about. They are embarrassed that this man had the nerve to get caught on the wiretap using foul language, actually giving voice to, you know, the wink and nod thing. He didn’t just wink and nod, he actually tried to shake people down according to the wiretaps.

Didn’t they say that about Nixon?

GREGORY: The president-elect said this is the far side of the business approach to politics which is a nice, euphemistic way to put this. But Chuck this is part of entrenched politics here in Washington, something that Obama is going to confront.

CHUCK TODD, NBC: It is. I mean, that is one of the things that Obama himself bragged about having so many small donors that maybe he wouldn’t be caught having to just serve as the big (?). But you bring up a big point about Chuck Schumer. And you’re going to have this huge roundtable discussion about the economy. What Wall Street happened, what happened in the financial situation? You look at what some of the contributions that Wall Street made, and there is a connection here. You wonder why legislation, why some things were overlooked or why Wall Street was allowed to do these credit default swaps. There are lines here of, you know, huge donations made to people that are in charge of these regulations. The Senate Banking Committee, and elected U.S. Senators.

GREGORY: And none of this is illegal by the way. Even to raise it as an example. Nothing wrong with it. It’s part of the system. H/T for transcript Newsbusters

JUST PART OF THE SYSTEM? Just what the hell is wrong with these people, do they really think that the Americans are just too stupid to see through this poor attempt to hide the truth? Oh Wait it Did work for Obama. This whole episode reminds me of the scene in “Back to School” where Rodney Dangerfield teaches his professor all about the palms you have to grease in the construction business (see video below) The only difference is, when Rodney talked it was funny. The white wash by Mitchell and Gregory is just disgusting.

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